the house is doing is a different set of circumstances. agoou wrote a couple weeks that this is the letter that the white house counsel sent to democratic leaders on the hill before the house passed its impeachment resolution last week. what was the truth that you are getting out? trying to make clear that the process argument that many republicans make is not necessarily to make changes to the process, but really to cast as what are the president's rights, process rights and shift the political

brain because at the end of the day, police -- impeachment is as much of the political process. ♪ [applause] pres. trump: thank you very much. thank you very much. we had another big record stock market day, another record in the stock market and the history of our country, which to me

means jobs and a lot of other things. we are doing really well and i just wanted to let you know. i think it is the 119th day we have set a record. so that is good stuff. [applause] pres. trump: so, good afternoon and thank you all for being here as we celebrate a profoundly historic milestone, and a truly momentous achievement. thanks to many of the people here today, my administration, and republicans in congress have now confirmed more than 150 federal judges. to be honest with you it is substantially higher right now than that, mitch. it is about 159 and we should have within the next short period of time, two months, we should have about 182 federal judges. how is that? [applause]

pres. trump: and i say often, percentage-wise you will never be to one man. you willwho that is -- never beat one man. you know who that is. george washington. but i would like to say quantity and quality we will be just about number one by the time we finish. number one of any president, any administration. so i want to thank all of you for the incredible job you have done. it is really fantastic. thank you very much. [applause] and they will uphold our constitution as written. these distinguished men and women are some of the most gifted scholars, respected legal mindsfinest ever placed on the federal bench. today we are defending american justice, preserving the

extraordinary vision of our founding fathers. we are delighted to be joined on this special occasion by vice president mike pence. thank you, mike, very much. [applause] and attorney general bill barr. thank you, bill. [applause] i want to thank some real friends of mine, too. and warriors. i have to say, warriors. we have a lot of great warriors in our party. and i think it is necessary, frankly, to be a warrior. if you are not, you have a problem. but i want to thank changed -- thanks chairman lindsey graham. thank you very much. great. [applause] pres. trump: a very special man. a man is so popular in his state i don't think they are going to run anyone against him anymore. they have given that up. chuck grassley, right?

chuck. [applause] pres. trump: and also with us are senator john cornyn. i looked at your poles, nobody is beating you, john. and you don't have to worry about beto anymore, that is for sure. from texas. doesn't like guns, religions, or oil. somehow in texas that will not work. i don't think that works anywhere. that does not work anywhere. good. john cornyn. mike lee. mike, thank you very much. cruz also of texas. thank you, senator. thanks, ted. senator tom tellis. tom, thank you very much. senator ben sasse. ben, great to have you here. and senator marsha blackburn.

marsha, thank you. great job you are doing. and josh hawley, our young star. he is a young star. thank you, josh. great job, everybody. in addition, the nation owes an immense debt of gratitude to a man whose leadership has been instrumental to our success. so important to him. he always mentions it, number one point. i have always heard that when you become president, the single most important thing you can do is federal judges. they say supreme court judges, but we have them too. but federal judges. based on that i think there is nobody that has done a better job ever than senator mitch mcconnell. [applause] pres. trump: you know mitch. standup. stand up. [applause]

pres. trump: i always get up and i talk about the economy, the economy, i am always talking. they never write about it but that is ok. but mitch will talk about judges always. it is great when you have done, incredible. the impact is truly amazing. we also have two great supreme court judges. that is in addition to what will be 182 judges. then we go by what i call normalization after you get to 182. but our supreme court judges are great gentlemen. it was so easy to get them confirmed, right? one in particular. nobody has ever had to go through that. i have great respect for both of them. so we appreciate it mitch. generations from now americans will know that mitch mcconnell

helped save the constitutional rules of law in america. it is true. for a long time. i also want to thank patsy pallone and his phenomenal team at the white house counsel's office, along with our office of legal policy. where is pat? stand up pat, come on. [applause] he is the strong, silent type. strong, very strong. great job you have done. very great. i always wanted to be the strong, silent type but it never worked out for me. never worked out. i want to be but it doesn't seem to work out that way. but the office of legal policy at the department of justice and many friends and legal luminaries who have supported all of those nominees, all of the rest of you in the room, incredible people in this room, great friends. genius, thedom and

framers of the constitution separated government power into three branches. congress writes the laws. the executive enforces the law. and the judicial branch provides an impartial interpretation of the laws it applies to any case before them. this system was designed to protect citizens against the unjust concentration of governmental power. i do say i think we are going through an interesting time right now if you must know. more interesting than at most other times. of ajudges assume the role legislature, the rights of all citizens are threatened. warned thatkstone if the judicial power were ,oined with the legislative then life, liberty and property would be in the hands of arbitrary judges whose decisions would be then regulated only by their opinion and not by any

fundamental principles of law. partial andds, be a objective judge who is a faithful servant of the law. it is essential to the survival of american liberty. so, it is really something. it is really something that you have done. this is such a big moment in our history. and i think what i am going to do is as we go along i am going to ask a couple of you to say if you wer -- to say a few words. it was not on the schedule but i think it is very appropriate to have if you speak. have to promise it will be very quick and short, because the media will not stand for anything else. but i would like to get your views and it would be very interesting for all of us. in recent decades our system has been under relentless attack by the left-wing activists who want to take the powers, the elected branches, and give that power to unelected federal judges.

they want to judge by official decree what they failed to win at the ballot box. does that sound familiar to anyone? when judges write policy instead of applying the law they impose sweeping changes on millions of americans without the benefit of legislative debate, public rulemaking, or the consent of the government. as a result, these highly political rulings inflict painful damage on our security, society, and economy and imposing unworkable edicts on businesses, workers, families, and law enforcement alike. they give many bad nights too many people, including presidents. including presidents. but we power through it. everything in my power to halt judicial activism and to ensure the law is upheld equally fairly without political prejudice for all of our

citizens. so, i would like to, before going any further, i would like to maybe start off -- i think it would be appropriate if we start off with mitch to just say a couple of words and how he feels about where we are and what we are doing and we are going to go through a couple of our friends if you don't mind. to me, it will be very interesting. mitch mcconnell. [applause] sen. mcconnell: will mr. president, i am reminded of election night, when i realized that not only had he won -- had you won, but we had taken the house, we had held the senate, and this would be one of those unusual periods where republicans had all three branches. to show you how unusual that is, you go back 100 years, only about 20 of those years has our party had all three.

we had the chance to set the agenda, an opportunity to move the ball in the right direction. what is the most important thing? clearly it was the supreme court. you had been helped enormously by a decision that i made and these guys backed me up, not to let president obama fill that scalia vacancy on the way out the door. [applause] sen. mcconnell: and boy, you did not blow it. neil gorsuch is an all-star, isn't he? [applause] sen. mcconnell: and the president alluded to that easy confirmation we had with brett kavanaugh. you made a great choice, mr. president. it is not just the circuit courts where 99% of litigation

stops, and people who believe in the quaint notion that maybe it is the job of a judge to follow the law. so mr. president, this is one of the many ways you are helping to make america great again. thank you so much. [applause] pres. trump: thank. it is true, when he first came to office because of what i said before that i have always heard how important it is, the choice of judges and the number of judges. in my first day i said to one of our assistance, how many judges do i have to pick? how many are there? i figured none or one, maybe two. sir, you have 142. no no no, tell me the truth. i want the truth. [laughter] pres. trump: that was it. and i say thank you president obama very much. canempty slots and nobody

believe that. i could not believe that but now i believe it because we have so many approved and we are going to hit that magic number. then it will be a lot more from there, because through normalization you have a lot leaving and other reasons. retiring. i never want to mention the d word, the death word, but that happens too. but we will be picking up a lot. a man that i have a lot of respect for and everybody doesn't the senate, chuck grassley. come up and say a couple of words, chuck. come up here. [applause] sen. grassley: like i tell my colleagues, if i yell, i am not mad at you. [laughter] say whatsley: let me set the stage for this, before

any of us had anything to do with this. a platform that no ever -- no other president has run on, to tell the type of people that you are going to put on the supreme court. 25 people, and that list is still out there, and it is made up of just the kind of people that mitch mcconnell has talked about, you have talked about, people who are constitutionalists. and you kept your word. of the people voted for you based on a proposition of the kind of people you were going to put on the supreme court. so, a lot of candidates for any butce run on a platform, they do not stand on that platform. and i think what is important about not only the judges that you have appointed along the lines of what you promised the people you are going to appoint, but also a lot of other issues

that you stand for, and the people of this country ought to be complemented that we had a president who said he was going to run a platform and he stands on that platform. [applause] pres. trump: thank you. fierce waye has this about him. he is tough even when he is trying to be nice. but i heard that voice -- i should not say this, but he biged during one of the events in the united states senate, he looked at a guy named comey. he said, did you leak? and he was being nice. comey choked, he did not know what to say. he was so frightened of this guy. he choked. please look that up. a lot of choke there.

another man who has been incredible and has been a friend of mine for a long time. we actually competed against each other. he was not at all nice during the campaign. and who would have thought we would become good friends? who would have thought? but we did. and i can say the same for ted. we were good friends and then really bad. they said when will it get bad? the media. it is like the academy awards. look at all the media. before, when it was successful. it died when it went after us, the academy awards. now just a regular program. i said ted and i get along good. he was having a big event near the white house. and he wanted to get more people, so he invited me. he said can you come? i said you know i am running against each other. this is true. the press said you guys are campaigning together you are fighting for the nomination? that's right, we like each other and we get along great.

i think he is great. we both have this incredible relationship. i said don't worry, it will end and when it ends it will be really bad, probably worse than normal. and it was vicious for about four months, but then we had a great relationship again. it was a pretty bad one for a little while, right? they did not even think how bad it would get. but it has been great, ted. lindsay, i would like to have you come up and say a few words. thank you very much. [applause] in theory at 4:00 we are going to vote on two more judges. what's move this thing forward. [laughter] after i got beat like a dog, which he likes hearing, he called me to the white house and said i would like you to help me. i would love to help you be a great president because you are now my president. and he says i don't have your phone number, and i said there is a reason for that.

my campaignight of is when you gave out my phone come or if i had done as well as my phone number it would have been a different story. to the committee, thank you. the judiciary committee is not for the faint of heart. it -- our democratic friends are tough. they believe in their causes and we have to fight hard for our causes. but one thing i want to say about president trump, the defining moment of your presidency for me was the kavanaugh hearing. this room would be empty if we had failed brett kavanaugh. brett kavanaugh lived a life we should all be proud of. he worked hard. and the way he was treated was the worst experience i have had in politics. a lot of people would have pulled the plug on him. mr. president, thank you for not pulling the plug. [applause]

sen. graham: and let me say why i support it. who would have been after brett had he gone down? what conservative young lawyer would want to go through this if we had failed brett kavanaugh? so chuck was right. when you run and you get reelected one year from now, one of the main reasons is that people in the conservative world believe that you fight for judges. god bless you. [applause] pres. trump: thank you very much. we can say that for everybody here. look, i know you all very well. i don't think anyone had any thoughts of doing anything different, at least in this group. i will say that includes mike. at that time we did not know bill, he was not involved. came at a good time, bill.

a tough time. and you know this and mitch knows this, plenty of other people were saying let's go to maybe another choice. they did not say it so nicely. they are people that you know very well, the people that you work with every day. but i can tell you i know all of you very well. there was nobody that i think even thought about it in this group. not anybody. and that starts with mitch. you never gave me the call to say maybe we can do it an easier way. but i told brett kavanaugh i picked him. 10 years ago they were talking about him. that he would someday be a supreme court justice. that was before i was in this wonderful life of politics. i could enjoy my life and think about all sorts of things. and they would say that brett kavanaugh is going to be a supreme court judge. anyway, he was on the list. leonard, thank you for being here.

we had a list that you worked on very hard. [applause] pres. trump: and it did have an impact on the election if you think about it. because people knew me very well but they didn't know. was he liberal, conservative? who are your judges? i did come up with an idea to pick 20 and 25 people. ultimately it was 25. we put great people on and we have great people on right now. we have 23 left. every one of them is terrific. but i went with his list. at first i said, i will take iis list, gave the names, and will pick people -- remember this, lindsay -- that are like these people. and i got nowhere. nobody believed me. they said what does that mean, like these people? they will be like these people. and i was being hammered. they said, say it, say it president, or potential

president. ok, it will only be these people. and that is what we have and that is where it is. and they were just so respected as a group and still are. an incredible group of people. i can take anyone literally and that had a big impact. i said to brett kavanaugh, so brett, you are the one. he was so honored. he said this is the greatest day of my life. and i said, i just want to congratulate you. it's an amazing thing that i am doing it and you are receiving it. he said thank you very much. i said let me tell you something, this approval process that you are going to go through will be so fast and so easy, you are perfect. perfect life. perfect family. perfect education. top scholar. best schools. brett, this is going to be so easy. little did he know. little did he know. but i will tell you what, it really represented something.

it represented unfairness, and some of those people that came forward, to my way of thinking, all of those people that came forward, i thought it was disgraceful what happened. and i want to thank all of my republican colleagues for standing up tall for a man who really did not deserve what he went through. nobody could have believed a thing like that could have happened to a man like that. and you could almost say to anybody. because nobody has ever seen anything like it. but he hung in strong, too. he also hung in strong. there are plenty of people i am sure that said you have to cut yourself loose. he did not want to do that. a very important day, lindsay, and you are a big part of it. i think your weightings -- your ratings went from 50 to 82. he made one speech, bill. one little few remarks that

lasted for about a minute, and they were historic. they really were. they were historic. the delivery, the words, the whole thing was very important. what you did was something very special, so thank you very much. so important. from the beginning of my campaign i promise to appoint judges who will adhere to the true and original meaning of our constitution. this afternoon, that promise was made, and that promise was kept. and i think many times over. later today, the senate will vote on our 158th new judge. that is why i am going to let you get out of here so quick. of course if you are not there i guess mitch, nothing is going to happen. so i will keep you a little longer. [laughter] pres. trump: but we will have confirmed as i said, 112 judges to the federal district courts, 44 judges to the federal circuit courts and two outstanding judges to the united states supreme court. and that number is rapidly rising.

now one out of every four circuit judges currently on the bench was appointed by this administration, and that number has now exceeded that by quite a bit. no president in history has confirmed as many circuit court judges, even close. not even close. in such a short period of time. the average age of my newly appointed circuit court judges is less than 50. a young, smart -- that is 10 years younger than president obama's nominees. the pace of appointments is only accelerating. it is going very quickly. and you know at some point we are going to have to slow it down because we are not going to have any openings. you know that. but we will find them. we will find them. we will find them. would you like to add a few judges? that would not be a bad idea. how about adding another hundred or so. but we are on track to have more judges confirmed this year than in the prior two years combined

for us. be a record in history the number of judges we are getting in just a short period of time. once all pending nominations are confirmed i will have appointed about 219 judges. and that number will go up very substantially from that. but the more gains we make, the more aggressive the hard left has become. i probably should not even be making this speech right now. i am just driving them crazy. they will go back and they will have even more craziness than they had had in the last three years. can you imagine? three years already. three years. who could believe it. almost. in fact in two days less than a year we will be fighting an election. and we actually had a very big night last night. we had some tremendous results last night. and i will be leaving for louisiana. i think we are going to have a great result in louisiana. one of their favorite new tactics is the nationwide

injunction. this very destructive practice 673 districtone of judges to single-handedly invalidate critical executive actions and stop the enforcement of duly enacted law. we have had it many times, especially when it comes to our border. and when you see what is going on on the other side of the break, people are starting to say, you know, maybe he is right about the wall, and maybe he is right about having a very strong border. the other side wants open borders, which brings tremendous crime. now people are starting to see it. a lot of people have told me that the last couple of days. they are starting to get the border thing. the activist lest only needs to find one partisan resistance judge anywhere in the country to agree with them. thesehaps no issue have issues been more brazen and damaging than in the area of

immigration. in case after case, judges are for hitting us from enforcing the plain letter of the law. and you know that better than anybody, the people in this room. areexample, federal laws expedited removal of illegal aliens apprehended within two years of entry. but a district court judge declared the law could only be applied to illegal aliens caught in 14 days. that is a tiny group of people. just a small fraction of what the law expressly allows. in the words of the late great justice antonin scalia, whose son, thank you the approval. gene is now our secretary of labor. a great young guy. a good judge must suppress his personal views and must decide each case as the law dictates, not as he would have resolved the matter if he had drafted the law. we have a lot of them looking at

it as if they had drafted the law. let's create brand-new law. justice scalia was correct. if federal judges want to write the law, they should run for congress. let them run for office. you think this is easy? it is not easy. [applause] pres. trump: not easy, fellas, is it? it is nasty. nobody told me it would been this nasty. but that is what they have to do, let them run for office and let them do what they are supposed to do. let them do the job the way it is meant to be. in recent years the left-wing assault on our constitution has also become a personal assault on the nominees themselves. it is nasty out there. and you are right, lindsay. one of the reasons this was so important is people watch this and they do not want us giving up on them. oh, let'st want us -- take the next one down the pike. that would have been much easier.

but they don't want to see that. nominees have been attacked in hearings for their religious beliefs. by entire nation was stunned the cruel campaign of lies and slander and abuse that was hurled at justice brett kavanaugh. but he refused to cave in. the left-wing mob, we will never, ever allow that to happen , where we give up, where we cave in, even though -- even when it is easy decision to make. republicans will not back down. we will never, ever give up. while i am your president we will continue to nominate highly qualified judges who truly love our constitution. and i know that leader mcconnell are chairman garaham absolutely committed to getting them confirmed quickly. and they have been going quickly. of course i would like to get some other people confirmed too, please. which would say well, we have to do the -- mitch would say we have to do the judges first, and

i agree with him. every judge we have placed on the bench, who will hear thousands of cases over their careers. they will ensure equal justice for every party before them, regardless of age, race, income, religion, beliefs or background, and they will safeguard the birthright of liberty that belongs to every man, woman, and child in our land. but it is not merely their responsibility to protect and defend the constitution. it is our responsibility as well. every american shares that glorious duty. have inherited as citizens of the greatest and most exceptional country the world has ever known. and we have to keep our country as the greatest the world has ever known. because that great title can end if we are foolish and if we make mistakes. you see what is happening? you see what is going on?

you see the statements that are made? and the ideas being put forward? it would no longer be a great country, certainly not for very long. for the sake of our families, our children, and generations of americans yet unborn, we will fight with all of our heart and protect anderve, defend the constitution of the united states, and the immortal rights given to us by almighty god. thank you. god bless you. and god bless america. thank you very much, everybody. >> ladies and gentlemen, please remain in your seats as the president departs east room. -- the east room. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪

for 40 years c-span has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events from washington dc and around the country. so you can make up your own mind. created by cable in 1979, c-span is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. announcer: president trump will hold a campaign rally in munro, louisiana tonight, a day after a number of states held elections. we will have live coverage starting at 8:00 eastern on c-span. you can also follow our coverage online at c-span.org or listen with the free c-span radio app. announcer: this week on c-span 3 at 8:00 p.m. eastern watch

samples of our history coverage featured every weekend on american history tv. tonight, african-american history. thursday, a look at past impeachment proceedings for presidents andrew johnson, richard nixon and bill clinton. friday, the american revolution. american history tv features all week at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 3. announcer: house intelligence committee chair adam schiff gave an update today on the impeachment inquiry hearings. he tweeted, next week the house intelligence committee holds its first open hearings as part of the impeachment inquiry. on wednesday, november 13, 2019 we will hear from william taylor and george kent. and on front on november 15, 2019 we will hear from marie yovanovitch. more to come. congressman schiff also spoke to reporters briefly. mr. schiff: we are in the middle

of a deposition involving ambassador haley of the third most senior official at the state department and atop career official at the state department. so i will have to keep this brief. first of all i want to thank ambassador hale for being here, four the law, for following the lawful subpoena that we issued. we wish others would show the same courage and dedication to the law that ambassador hale is demonstrating here today. i want to let you know as you may know already that we will begin our open hearings in the impeachment inquiry next week. we will be beginning with testimony of ambassador taylor and ambassador kent on wednesday. and we will have ambassador eve ottovich testify on friday. lisle be the first of the open hearings. and i think you'll see throughout the course of the testimony, not only their testimony but many others, the most important facts are largely

not contested. we are getting an increasing appreciation for just what took place during the course of the last year. thethe degree to which president enlisted whole departments of government in the alyssa name of trying to get ukraine to dig up dirt on a political opponent, as well as further conspiracy theory about the 2016 election he believed would be beneficial to his reelection campaign. so those open hearings will be an opportunity for the american evaluate the witnesses for themselves, to make their own determinations about the credibility of the witnesses, and also to learn firsthand about the facts of the president's misconduct. along those lines today we will be releasing the deposition transcript of ambassador taylor, so people will have the opportunity to read about that deposition as well. and what americans will see from that transcript is what they

have seen from the others, that the gop claims to be locked out, unable to ask questions, are simply false. in ambassador taylor's deposition, republican members have had equal opportunity to ask any questions they would like. i think he will see in the dedicated what a public servant ambassador taylor is, someone who graduated from point, someone who served in vietnam, someone i think is performing another vital service for the country in relating the facts that came to his attention, the very disturbing facts that came to his attention. so we move forward with the open phase of the impeachment inquiry. we still have some remaining depositions to do which we will be conducting in the next several days. and with that, we are going to head back.

announcer: house intelligence committee chair adam schiff, who is leading the impeachment inquiry, saying today that the first public impeachment hearing will take place next wednesday, november 13 with state department officials william taylor and george kent. we will have live coverage starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span 3. an former u.s. ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch will testify next friday, november 15 live at 10:00 eastern on c-span 2. announcer: the chair of the democratic party tom perez discussed the 2020 campaign and election results from yesterday in kentucky, virginia and other state races. reporters at this christian science monitor event also asked the chair about the ongoing impeachment inquiry against president trump. >> good morning.